Stamp Exhibit: War Ration Books

Here is a gallery of scans of War Ration Books.
A lot of collectors have probably run into these, and they're interesting
items. So here's a scan of each book.

Now -- the big question I always get: what are these things worth?

Over a hundred million of each ration book were printed. Enough for everyone.
As a result, the books generally sell for between $3 and $10 each, with
higher prices for earlier books (Book One) with more stamps left inside.
Book Two and Book Three are the most common, and fewer of their stamps
were actually used, so they're more common with a lot of stamps remaining
inside, and they get lower prices.

The individual ration stamps from these books can't be worth more than a few
cents each. However, there are some private, military and limited-run ration
stamps that are considerably more valuable; I have never seen a complete
catalog of these. And, of course, other countries have issued ration stamps
during times of crisis.